The Clifton clarion., 1887-06-08
Welding Copper.

entists have expended millions of dollars in attempts to rediscover the art known to the ahcients, but have failed utterly, Its discovery being reserved to an unpreten- tious blacksmith named James Burns. James Burns was, until very recently, blacksmith in the Allegheny Valley railroad shops, at Verona, Pa. He believed cop- per could be welded, and with pa- tience and perseverance set him. self the task of rediscovering the long-lost art, and after eight years of toll and study succeeded in weld ing together, perfectly, pieces of copper. Elated with success, but careful to keep his method se- cret, Burns announced his discov- cry and was laughed at, but when he resorted to hammer, anvil and fire and in less than ten minutes welded together two bars of cop per more perfectly than it was possible to weld steel, the doubt CTS became converts and realized that discovery had been made, scarcely second to any made dur ing the present century. Park, Scott & Cc., extensive workers in copper, of Pittsburg, would not believe that copper could be weld ed, notwithstanding the welded samples were submitted to them,. whereupon Burns convinced them by going into their works. and, in the presence of Mir. Scott, the su-
 perintendent, and others, success fully welded, with ordinary tools, number of pieces of copper, mak ing welds so strong by pounding the pure copper together that it is impossible for them to give out as do brazed parts.
 MT. Burns success is due, says the Industrial Gazette, to a chem ical mixture, or compound, the in- gredients of which are kept secret. The mixture is cheap, and very little is necessary in making a weld, the discoverer in his public tests using only small phial full. The discovery opens up a new field in copper working; in fact, wilE re- volutionize some lines of manufac- ture The inability to weld cop per has always been an insur- mountable obstacle to the econo- mic use of that metal in many di-- rections, making 1t very expensive, where its use was absolutely necss- sary, owing to it's peculiar quail ities. In making copper steam pipes for engines and locomotives they had to be worked up out of the solid raw mass of copper by a sort of boring process, which was tedious and costly. To make a> copper ring for fitting over joint in pipes or cylinders, it had to be cut round out of square piece of solid plate copper. This caused waste, and the consumer was charged with the whole square. The waste could often not be melt ed over into another plate, because by the present smelling methods the slightest impurity mixing in it will spoil the whole mass. To repair broken or defective copper pipes, chambers or vessels, brass had to be used, by which in a whole days labor the piece could be brazed. But should an intense heat ever strike the brazed part afterward, the brass would melt and thus the piece be ruined. Mir. Burns discovery, however, revol- utionizes old methods. A straight piece of copper can now be curved into circle and then welded to- gether in ring for fitting over joints. thus saving the waste of cutting 1t from square plate- Pipes may be made in the same way, being welded instead of work ed out of the solid. Mir. Burns has even made copper boiler for a small engine by his welding something unheaTd of In the process of welding the copper is purified, another remarkable fea- ture of the discovery. No impurity mixing in the shelter interferes, and old scraps have been femelted and welded into all sorts of pipes, joints and fittings by MT. Bmns-' -l0tn,na1 Of ConYnelTa